Yeah I’m gonna get it off Amazon, and I’m going to drop Verizon and use data only Silent Link piggybacking off AT&T. The data only plan is rather cheap, and I think voips can be cheap, too. I’m mainly using the voips as a “fiiiiiine I’ll get a phone number because I need one for work, family, signing up for things, etc”.
It’ll be nice to compartmentalize those away from one another. It’s not “secure”, but it reduces the potential cost of a breach. Instead of gaining access to everything I use phone numbers for, they only get some.

And yeah, a lot of those efforts I listed off at the bottom of my last post (after “going feral”) are what I’m not gonna do, either because I don’t know enough (tor and vpn) or because it’s not worth it for me (leave home forever and use a hacked MUDI router).

What are bridges?

Re: voips: are both MySudo and twilio a pain, or just twilio?

I’m having a hard time finding a solid compilation of info on various voips with respect to privacy and security.

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    • Post #9

    GlytchMeister twilio is an absolute massive pain to setup. MySudo is quite easy, the problem is you can't create a mysudo account on a GOS phone atm, it has to be done on a secondary, non-GOS device and then transferred to the GOS device. It's really not hard at all, the part that makes it a "pain" is that you would need a secondary device.

        [deleted]

        The other negative of mysudo is that it requires google play services to be installed if you want notifications to function normally. Jmp.chat (and their Cheogram app) do not rely on google.

        One other negative is that I’ve heard of people having their mysudo accounts shut down for violating their supported country rules even when traveling to a non-supported country short term and using a VPN to appear to be in the USA for example. I don’t understand why a privacy focused voip company would limit you to using their service in a handful of countries.

            applesbana so does MySudo also freak out if I were to use a VPN that exits outside of the USA? Seems odd to me, too. Makes me wonder if they really are privacy focused if they’re so careful to not let anyone use their service outside a surveillance state.

              Either way, if MySudo depends on Google, that’s another mark against it. Is jmp.chat and their choreogram app trusted in the privacy and infosec community?

                Also, does installing Graphene void any warrantee or Preferred Care or whatever?

                  I might get the pixel straight from google, still trying to figure out the best option

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                    • Post #16

                    applesbana

                    applesbana I don’t understand why a privacy focused voip company would limit you to using their service in a handful of countries.

                    Why don't you email them and ask?

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                          • Post #18
                          • Edited

                          GlytchMeister you only need google services if you want push notifications the same is true with things like protonmail. MySudo is also recommended by privacy experts (it's endorsed by Michael Bazzell). They also purge data (such as your messages) from their servers 24 hours after being deleted by the user, it is also stored encrypted.

                              [deleted]

                              Why don’t you? I am not a customer of theirs and the stories I’ve read of them deleting user accounts for “violations” of their policies without recourse is enough for me to avoid for something as important as a phone number.

                                  [deleted]

                                  To be clear, notifications include incoming call notifications. So if you want your phone work like a phone with mysudo (to ring upon a phone call or ding upon an sms), you need google play services.

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                                      • Post #22

                                      applesbana I didn't post that to be rude, you are curious about a policy of theirs so my point was why not contact them and ask them instead of basing your opinion of them purely on "stories"?

                                          [deleted]

                                          Sorry for mis interpreting the tone! The experiences others had are enough to keep me away, but I also encourage anyone curious to inquire. They do clearly state on their site that they only support a few countries and oddly it varies if you use iOS vs android:

                                          MySudo for iOS:
                                          MySudo for iOS is currently only available in:

                                          🇦🇺Australia
                                          🇨🇦Canada
                                          🇳🇿New Zealand
                                          🇸🇬Singapore
                                          🇰🇷South Korea
                                          🇬🇧United Kingdom
                                          🇺🇸United States

                                          MySudo for Android:
                                          MySudo for Android is currently only available in:

                                          🇦🇺Australia
                                          🇨🇦Canada
                                          🇳🇿New Zealand
                                          🇸🇬Singapore
                                          🇬🇧United Kingdom
                                          🇺🇸United States

                                          https://support.mysudo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020177133-Why-isn-t-MySudo-working-in-my-country-

                                          https://support.mysudo.com/hc/en-us/articles/15939400275739-My-account-was-locked

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                                              • Post #24

                                              applesbana No worries. Yea i'm not sure what the issue as far as using it in countries that they are not listed, I don't think it is anything spooky, but probably more so an issue with support in those countries, but that's completely anecdotal.

                                                GlytchMeister I’m not a criminal/secret agent trying to be completely untraceable, I’m just trying to be reasonably responsible.

                                                Well, I do not believe in a simple black-n-white-google-is-evil world. The device and OS GrapheneOS is running on is both developed by Google. Chrome-based browsers are pretty secure with strong sandboxing techniques. Sure, you as a user are the customer and product at the same time, which is the dark side of Google (among others maybe).

                                                For me beeing reasonably responsible means first and foremost to develop a clear idea of what you are trying to accomplish and to avoid. Google maps is a pretty good service so it's totally reasonable to use it if helps you to accomplish every-day tasks. Since you are aware of google trying to collect as much data about you as they possibly can you can act accordingly - use a VPN or avoid the service and use alternatives if feasible.

                                                In my opinion you should define for yourself what privacy means to you. If your live does not depend on it, it's usually a good idea to start your journey to more privacy slowly and with well planned small steps and, even more importantly, consciously - think about what you do and try to achieve and do not just follow some guides on the internet (not saying you do, but just in case). Reduce the data that's freely available about you in the internet (Facebook, insta, reddit, you name it) and go from there. Using a VPN and strongly encrypted communication services is a good start. Again, start slowly and consciously and develop a clear idea of what you want to achieve - as stated above, privacy and convenience are on opposite sites, so make sure you find your own sweet spot.